Sea Days

[nycruise1]

I see a Journeys transatlantic with 8 in a row.  I am fine with sea days, but is that just too many, like a Groundhogs Day unending loop?  What I like about port days is the ship empties out and while I normally disembark for awhile, there is time either before or after leaving to enjoy escaping the crowds.  Anyone been at sea for a similarly long time and how has it been?  I know there will be some additional Journeys activities but still wondering.

[Joanne G.]

I haven't been on an Atlantic crossing, but I was on the Pride for pretty much 7 days straight this past July during its emergency repair in Germany, the return to Dover, and through the first part of the subsequent delayed cruise.  Granted, it was an unusual situation with a greatly reduced passenger load during the repair and the return to Dover and then a somewhat reduced passenger load for the subsequent shortened cruise as many passengers had canceled.   

 

I have always enjoyed sea days in my past 20+ cruises, but I found myself kind of bored at the end of this period on the Pride.  The weather was often too chilly to walk on outside decks, which is one of my favorite shipboard activities. It was often too chilly to sit around the pool, even with the cover partially closed. My balcony use was limited to the occasional periods of sun and mild temperatures.  The casino was always busy while at sea, but that doesn't appeal to me.   Thankfully, I had plenty of reading material on my Kindle, and I found myself wandering around the ship and settling in random seating areas to read for a while.   I ate too much at the buffet, as meals were the highlight of the days.  😲  My boredom was probably more pronounced because I was cruising solo.  

 

I have pretty much lost interest in a crossing for myself, but I know many people love them.   I am sure on a crossing there is a full range of activities every day.  I have always found the Carnival "Fun Squad" to be very dedicated to arranging a variety of things for people to do.  Consider the time of the year, as that would affect how much time you could be on outdoor decks or your balcony if you have one. 

 

Hopefully others will share their experiences on Carnival transatlantic cruises to help you decide if one if for you. 

Edited October 27, 2023 by Joanne G.

[evandbob]

One of our unpleasant surprises in an E/B Atlantic crossing was the almost daily change of hours.  I think we changed 5 hours in 7 days, so when I was waking up and looking for breakfast, the ship was on its lunch schedule.

 

We had done a southern Atlantic crossing from Florida to Barcelona in the spring time, so we were able to use our comfortably warm balcony for most of the sea days.  There was indeed a full schedule of activities up on deck and about the ship if one was interested.  However, we relaxed, read, snoozed, etc. and were quite happy doing that the entire crossing.  We saved our energy for when we began stopping in ports.

 

Enjoy your journey, do what you feel is most comfortable for yourself !!

[Joebucks]

The same people who tell you they would love all sea days, are the same ones who are bored with it halfway though. That is way too many for my liking. Especially if the weather is cold. I probably wouldn't book it at all.

[nycruise1]

10 minutes ago, Joebucks said:

The same people who tell you they would love all sea days, are the same ones who are bored with it halfway though. That is way too many for my liking. Especially if the weather is cold. I probably wouldn't book it at all.

It is in June so at least all the outdoor deck activities would be fine.

 

19 minutes ago, evandbob said:

Enjoy your journey, do what you feel is most comfortable for yourself !!

Have not booked yet.  Still in the "thinking about it" mode.  I have had 2 sea days in a row numerous cruises and enjoyed them, just not sure about 8!

[simplelife]

 I try not to book anything that has more than 2 seadays in a row, We once had a port canceled and ended up having four seas days in a row. We managed to have a good time anyway 🙂 

[Honolulu Blue]

On 10/27/2023 at 7:11 AM, nycruise1 said:

I see a Journeys transatlantic with 8 in a row.  I am fine with sea days, but is that just too many, like a Groundhogs Day unending loop?  What I like about port days is the ship empties out and while I normally disembark for awhile, there is time either before or after leaving to enjoy escaping the crowds.  Anyone been at sea for a similarly long time and how has it been?  I know there will be some additional Journeys activities but still wondering.

8 days is a lot.  The most consecutive days I've done was 5, and that I only did once.  I thought it was all right.

 

There will always be more on-ship activities when at sea than when in port.  I wouldn't worry too much about that if you like the activities the ship is likely to provide.

 

Only you can decide whether you like (or at least can tolerate) a bunch of sea days in a row or not.  Three things that I find help me are 1) bringing a tablet and packing it with entertainment - books, games, and videos - from home, 2) having an Internet package can help bridge any entertainment gaps, and 3) I've found there are some quiet places around the ship that I hang out - especially in the mornings.

[jsglow]

So I'm going to flip the coin a bit. As I get older, one challenge I face is too many consecutive port days in a row. Our two European cruises gave us a perfect sense of the balance necessary. On our first, we maxed out our experience pre-cruise in Rome and were very pleased to have 2 sea days upon boarding just to unwind. Then it was 7-8 straight demanding port days (we're not getting back anytime soon, right) where we maxed out each of them. By the final day in Naples (Pompeii), we literally gave ourselves a pep talk at breakfast reminding ourselves that we might never get back. We did fine but certainly flew home the next day exhausted. A great, but demanding trip we're likely not able to repeat in 10 years time.

 

Our second was our recent 21 days in the UK, Ireland and Iceland. We were plenty busy in London before the cruise, had a nice sea day after we left Dover, and then pretty typically would do somewhere between 2-3 consecutive port days with a sea day thereafter. That really kept me fresh. I do know that on the second leg we did 6 in a row but mostly managed to do that more in check.

 

I guess I find it interesting that we continue to learn what works best for us each time we sail. Completely off topic, I remember commenting to my wife on this recently completed 25 day overall trip that I couldn't live out of a suitcase that long and that the ship/cabin as 'home' concept was important for me. Too old to hitchhike across Europe for the entire summer with only a backpack, I suppose.   

[Cook Cylinder]

Yes I think 8 in a row would be excessive.  As one who used to "love" sea days I had a personal reckoning on our recent Panama Canal cruise.  The first 4 days out of Seattle were fine as everyone was fresh and we were still excited.  The 3 sea days after Cabo were a little more tiresome (tired of seeing the same people ALL the time), but still not bad.  Going through the Canal was of course the highlight of the trip and reason for going, so after that the trip was pretty much over for me.  The port day in Cartagena was interesting for me only because we were docked at a container terminal.  But then those last 3 sea days crossing the Caribbean and Gulf to get back home were a total DRAG.  I just wanted to get home.  And a phenomenon that I hadn't considered before; on a 16 day cruise you realize the ship's musicians have a finite playlist and you get tired of hearing the same songs over and over again.  So don't get me wrong, I loved the trip, but I realized there is a limit to my enjoyment of sea days.  I'm sure we'll never do that long of a cruise again.

 

Andy

[Drazil65]

We would say no to 8 sea days for sure, I think we top out at no more than 3, maybe 4 but no more than that.